State of the Market

[eek]

LA International are struggling to find D365 architects and developers for a number of outside roles. If anybody is looking and that's their skillset.

It's a specialist skillset - wtf has someone gone to LA International to recruit...

[quackhandle]

I have never heard of Amazon or Google bringing in Contractors. I had an interview once with Microsoft in Reading for a contract but that was years ago.

it isn’t in their business models.

It used to be before the OPW changes in 2021.

My first gig in 2003 was with MS in TVP, Reading where I was living at the time, so zero commute cost with the subsidised bus. A great but odd gig they applied an undocumented patch which messed up a critical app so paid me for nine months to fix it/keep it running before the new system was implemented. I automated it, so it was a button press twice a day. Played a lot of Halo.

In the place where I sat it was around 80% contractors. I remember a permy leaving and it was big news. The food was amazing.

I worked for them again doing cloud migrations with the DfE in 2018 but sadly didn't get down to TVP. I have decent cred with a few hiring managers there and been asked back but all gigs are/were inside IR35 (US company, very risk adverse).


qh

[SchumiStars]

It used to be before the OPW changes in 2021.

My first gig in 2003 was with MS in TVP, Reading where I was living at the time, so zero commute cost with the subsidised bus. A great but odd gig they applied an undocumented patch which messed up a critical app so paid me for nine months to fix it/keep it running before the new system was implemented. I automated it, so it was a button press twice a day. Played a lot of Halo.

In the place where I sat it was around 80% contractors. I remember a permy leaving and it was big news. The food was amazing.

I worked for them again doing cloud migrations with the DfE in 2018 but sadly didn't get down to TVP. I have decent cred with a few hiring managers there and been asked back but all gigs are/were inside IR35 (US company, very risk adverse).


qh

I worked for Avanade/Microsoft/Accenture so familiar with TVP in my early days 2006.

I did an interview for Microsoft ~2010 IIRC, SQL Server. Sadly computational, mathematics was not something I was familiar with and the MIT PhDs belew me out of the water.

IIRC it was not at the top rate either and the recruiter said that those kind of roles stay open for ages as they can never, ever get the people with skill set.

I would have loved it tbh, faced with imense difficulties that I could not understand or any possibility of being successful.

...State of the market, 2025-03, pretty tulip.

[dsc]

Got a rejection email yesterday, automotive, client pulled the project for now. Tbh I was surprised it was there in the first place, considering how everyone just isn't doing projects at all these days (and with automotive being so tulip). Seems to be the usual motions, client thinks of a project, does pre-recruitment, finds out cost, puts the breaks on...luckily I have something to fall back on for now.

[dsc]

Ladies and gentleman, let me offer a new perspective, which has occured to me of late.

Perhaps the IT market has had a massive readjustment in order to align with everything else.

I.e. Why should a developer get paid more than a building surveyor or lawyer?

Is it anymore difficult, probably not. Are people's lives at risk? Not at all, unless it's RTC or defence.

Why do companies such as apple, Google, Microsoft, not require £500pd developers? And if they can do without them, then surely so can other enterprises?

Market does not need UKC.Ltd, seems to be getting on fine without us.

The only reason devs were getting silly money is demand and supply, there just wasn't enough people with the right skills to make...apps or do "digital transformations" for the sake of it. Now businesses seem to be more careful with money and they realised there's loads of cheap resources on the market, so I think that bum-on-seat-and-get-paid-£1kpd is gone.

[TheDude]

educate me? I don't think so.
I've been in IT freelance in all it's guises since the '70's.
been there, done that.

War stories and bluster do not a good developer make.

[jamesbrown]

Got a rejection email yesterday, automotive, client pulled the project for now. Tbh I was surprised it was there in the first place, considering how everyone just isn't doing projects at all these days (and with automotive being so tulip). Seems to be the usual motions, client thinks of a project, does pre-recruitment, finds out cost, puts the breaks on...luckily I have something to fall back on for now.

What do you do when the US threatens 25% tariffs on imported cars from 1 April? You pull projects, investments. In fact, there's a general wait and see/malaise precipitated by the current US administration being so wild/incompetent - working with US companies, I've heard this firsthand on several occasions in recent weeks, and the impacts are global because the US economy is so massive. I expect the UK economy will be in full-blown recession before too long.... way down from, er, 1% growth

[sadkingbilly]

War stories and bluster do not a good developer make.

just as well i'm not a 'developer' then eh?

[oliverson]

just as well i'm not a 'developer' then eh?

Aren't you a 'nothing' now? Retired? Bit like me :-(

[sadkingbilly]

Aren't you a 'nothing' now? Retired? Bit like me :-(

'retired' four times now.
'phone still keeps ringing though.
no. - nothing like you.